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It appears that Russ Smith may be making his way out of New Orleans and to…Memphis. Talk about a change in cities! Sorry Russ.

This is still in the works and is being reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. If you know much about Adrian, you know that he probably knows what you had for breakfast before you even wake up. He is THAT good on his information.

The NBA Summer League’s are always exciting because you have guys out there fighting for a job. If you see a game, you may see about 10-20 people watching on the sidelines, so it may not look like the games mean much. But those guys are out there battling for a roster spot. That will be the case this summer for former Louisville Cardinal Peyton Siva with the Detroit Pistons. Although he played well coming down the stretch last season in Detroit, his contract is not guaranteed, so he is essentially playing to make the team.

In this article by detroitbadboys.com, they write that Siva should have plenty of opportunity to make his case, as Spencer Dinwiddie ruled out for the summer. Dinwiddie was drafted by the Pistons this year in the 2nd round, and he is a 6’6 point guard that played at Colorado. This is from the article:

Sounds like ESPN Draft Insider is finding out what we all already knew……Russ Smith is good. Last year Russ was a possible late first rounder but chose to come back and work on the things the NBA told him he needed to improve on. Not only did Russ work on those things but he got noticeably better at EVERY thing, yet somehow began slipping down the draft boards as the season went on. Now at the pre draft workouts coaches and GM’s are getting an up close look at just how quick Russ really is and apparently they like what they see. Chad Ford wrote the following in his recent “Draft Rumors”:

Louisville’s Russ Smith is riding on a high since being one of the lone standouts in a two-day league-wide workout the NBA scheduled in L.A. right after the draft lottery.

He’s since gone on to work out with the Celtics, Suns, Thunder and Heat and seems to be moving into the discussion as a possible late first-round pick.

“Everyone knows Russ is one of the quickest players in this draft and he can obviously put the ball in the basket,” one GM said. “But I think he’s been showing off that when he wants to be, he can be a guy who can really play point guard. He seems like a perfect change-of-pace guard who can score and speed

Where Russ will end up is unknown but I, like many, have no doubt Russ Smith will be a name we will hear much more about in the coming years.

This morning on the Drew Deener show (ESPN 680) former Louisville assistant coach Mark Lieberman said Kyle Kuric would suit up with the LA Clippers for this years NBA Summer League. The Clippers will participate in the Las Vegas league (July 11-July 21) along with 23 other teams and there will be no shortage of talent.

From NBA.com:

“This summer, 10 of the 12 teams that own Lottery picks in the 2014 NBA Draft presented by State Farm will take the court at Samsung NBA Summer League, including the Cleveland Cavaliers, Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers, who are slated to make the top three picks in this year’s Draft.

Each team is expected to choose from an impressive crop of prospects that includes Australia’s Dante Exum, Duke’s Jabari Parker, Joel Embiid and Andrew Wiggins from Kansas, and Kentucky’s Julius Randle.”

The NBA announced on Monday that 76ers point guard Michael Carter-Williams won the Rookie of the Year award. He averaged 16.7 points per game and won the award easily with 104 first place votes (out of 124). The bigger news here of course, is that Gorgui Dieng finished 6th in the voting! Considering he really didn’t start to get meaningful minutes until the middle of March, that is pretty incredible.

Total points for votes in ( )

1. Michael Carter-Williams – Phi (569)

2. Victor Oladipo – Orl (364)

3. Trey Burke – Utah (96)

4. Mason Plumlee – Bkn (58)

5. Tim Hardaway Jr. – NY (23)

6. Gorgui Dieng – Min (3)

7. Steven Adams – OKC (1)

8. Giannis Antetokounmpo – Mil (1)

9. Nick Calathes – Mem (1)

He finished the season averaging 4.8 points and 5 rebounds per game, but his impact was much bigger than that when he finally started to play consistently. For the month of March, he averaged 8.6 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. That includes 6 games where he played a total of 14 minutes, which couldn’t help those averages at all. March also saw Gorgui have a game with 22 points and 21 rebounds against the Rockets, as well as a game with 15 points and 15 rebounds against the Hawks.

It is becoming routine now: Gorgui Dieng records a double-double for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Tonight it was in a 107-83 victory over the Atlanta Hawks. Gorgui played a team high 41 minutes and had 15 points and 15 rebounds! The 15 rebounds were also a team high, which is saying a lot when you play on the same team as Kevin Love. He also had 2 assists, 1 block, and 1 steal. He shot 6-8 from the field and 3-4 from the free throw line.

This is Gorgui Dieng’s 5th double-double in his last 6 games. In those 6 games, Gorgui is averaging 12.6 points and 14 rebounds per game.

I like Mangok, but is there anyway that Gorgui can slip on that #12 jersey and get away with it on Friday? I would imagine this would be some step in that transformaton. Make it happen.

Gorgui Dieng continues to make the most of his opportunity in Minnesota right now while starting center Nikola Pekovic is injured. Monday night, Dieng recorded his fourth double-double in the last five games in a 109-92 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. In 37 minutes, Gorgui had 11 points and 17 rebounds. Seven of those rebounds were on the offensive end.

In these five games that he has started, Gorgui is avergaing 12.2 points and 13.8 rebounds in 32.4 minutes per game.

Remember when Louisville was playing at SMU and Luke Hancock was trying to dribble the clock out and not run up the score? Then the SMU player stole and ball and tried to dunk, so Luke dribbled down court and found Montrezl Harrell who pretty much ripped down the goal, and SMU fans got mad. Remember that? Luke then posted on instagram that if they want to play until the buzzer, then we will too.

Well John Lucas, who plays for the Utah Jazz, apparently also wants to play until the buzzer when his team is getting dominated. The Rockets are trying to just dribble it out, and he wants to steal it and still play, so Francisco Garcia chases him down and still plays defense. Then Lucas goes into full out “big baby” mode.

Our favorite Kentucky player of all time (right?) DeMarcus Cousins proved on Saturday night that he has grown up since his days at Kentucky. He has matured, and is a better man and is worth all of that money that the Kings gave him this past off-season. Need more proof?

Check out this hilarious video! Kris Humphries was about to shoot a free throw and the ref noticed a sub was about to enter the game. Rather than just blowing his whistle or yelling for Humphries to not shoot the ball, the ref decides to take matters into his own hands!